Report: Ex-LSU coach Chatman to coach Russian women's pro team

this is a discussion within the College Community Forum; Associated Press
Updated: August 16, 2007
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Pokey Chatman, who resigned last March as LSU's women's basketball coach amid allegations of improper relationships with a former player, plans to take a job coaching a professional women's club ...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Pokey Chatman, who resigned last March as LSU's women's basketball coach amid allegations of improper relationships with a former player, plans to take a job coaching a professional women's club in Russia, WAFB-TV reported Thursday night.

The station reported that Chatman would join the Spartak Moscow Region team.

Chatman's California-based agent, Eric Weisel, did not return a phone message left at his office. Reached by phone at his home, Chatman's father, Douglas Chatman, said he could not confirm that his daughter had agreed to join Spartak.

Chatman resigned abruptly and has for the most part refrained from speaking publicly about her departure from LSU. She spoke about the matter only briefly at a youth basketball camp she hosted earlier this month, saying she believed she had no choice but to resign, even though LSU officials have said they did not force her to do so.

Following her departure from LSU, Chatman had a brief legal battle to recover bonuses that she argued was owed to her after LSU advanced to the Final Four under then-interim head coach Bob Starkey. LSU settled the matter by paying Chatman $160,000.

Chatman was 90-14 as LSU's head coach. Before that, she was 15-5 as acting head coach during the latter stages of the 2003-04 season, when longtime coach Sue Gunter left the team because of an illness. That included a trip to the Final Four in New Orleans, where the Lady Tigers fell in the semifinals to Tennessee.

Chatman then led LSU to the Final Four the next two seasons and to the NCAA tournament this past season before she stepped down.